1. In the previous entry, I said, "I just read a lot of nonfiction, and fiction has to grab me and give me enough payoff for the reading that I keep going."
And that's pretty much what I am looking for in games too. I tend to give MMORPGs more time than other games to grab me because I know that the newbie experience in many games is the least compelling content. Unfortunately, for some games, it is the most compelling content, and that's where the payoff part comes in. I may be wrong, but I think some games lose people when those players don't feel like they are getting a handle on the gameplay and making some progress in the first couple of hours. Other games wow folks for the first couple of hours and then create hostile ex-customers when those people realize they've already played the best part of the game and there won't be any additional payoff for "wasting" more time on it.
Note how many people feel they've "wasted" time on games that they've played for a couple of YEARS. They must have been getting some sort of payoff at some point, or they'd have quit sooner. Maybe they were hoping the payoff would come back if they kept playing.
2. Drat... I forgot the other thing I wanted to say. I am not sure if I wanted to talk about hearing people talking about World of Warcraft at the grocery store or if it was a thought about the scale of progress in older games... Or... I am drawing a total blank.
Hrmm... There's a thread in the Off Topic forum about the word "spastic" and whether or not it is offensive in the US. I think it is safe to say that it's not terribly offensive here and I have totally spazzed on the second part of this entry.
I'm easily distracted, like this cat:
MMORPG.com writes:
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